John Cottle Showjumping

25/12/2024

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

18/12/2024

Telegraph!

John bred and rode this admirable grey stallion.

Check this out ⬇️

🌟 2005 New Zealand Horse of the Year
🌟 2005 World Cup series winner
🌟 2004 National Showjumping Champion
🌟 2005 Grand Prix Showjumper of the Year
🌟 Winner of 13 Grand Prix’s from 15 starts in one season.

13/12/2024

11/12/2024

Why not move your horse to a property where you have access to a top coach teaching and mentoring you! 🤩

✔️50 acre property in Ardmore. Full livery, facility or agistment spots available.

✔️Andrew Bowen Fibre/ Sand arena, riding tracks, wash bay and yards.

✔️Relaxed and supportive environment! Horses also do well on the property 🥰🐎

✔️Top coach available on site! Who is invested in you!

A nice place to enjoy your horse 😍 And no, you don’t have to be a show jumper to graze here! 🙂😀

🐎 Full facility use $109.25 per week

🐴 Grazing/ agistment only $86.25 per week

Phone/ text John 021 220 0275

25/11/2024

Wanting someone to mentor and coach you? Someone who takes an interest in your learning journey? ⬇️

20/11/2024

This advice will NOT be popular with those who want it RIGHT NOW, but nevertheless, here goes---

If the goal is to become two things, a good rider and a good horseman/horsewoman, be willing to think in decades rather than in years.

That first decade, from whatever age you began, will take you only so far, and may even take you to the Olympics, but riding skill alone won’t give you all you need to know and be able to do. The next couple of decades will let three components, your physical skills, your control over your emotions and your knowledge, all intertwined to complement one another.

That’s why many of the best riders and trainers are in their 40s, 50s and in some cases in their 60s, even 70s. They didn’t get those tens of thousands of hours overnight.

There are ever so many riders and trainers who gave up too soon. They just needed to have hung in there another ten years, maybe twenty. Which sounds insane, but actually isn’t.

19/11/2024

When there is contact, the control with the hands can be precise.

Riding on “Contact” — by Vladimir Littauer

The contact between the rider’s hands and the horse’s is not established by the hand being moved to the rear. Just the reverse should take place; that is, the horse, moving forward with sufficient impulse stretches his neck and, due to the rider keeping a correct length of reins, the horse’s mouth feels the rider’s hands. Instead of the rider’s hands pulling back on the mouth, it is the mouth which gently pulls the rider’s hands forward. If the horse lacks natural impulse the rider’s legs must create it—this is the general rule.

Riding on contact can also be called “riding on the bit;” the latter expression means that the horse accepts the bit and moves forward boldly as if there were nothing in his mouth. I personally reserve the expression “on the bit” for a more energetic form of riding on contact, but this is a detail. The important thing is that the horse must accept the bit with the neck and head stretched forward.

When riding “on contact” the rider must follow with his hands and arms (through the air), the balancing gestures of his horse’s neck and head. It is obvious that when holding the reins by the buckle one doesn’t have to worry about these gestures, for the neck has enough room to move at will. But if after the contact is established the rider’s hands remain fixed then the horse will continually jerk himself against immobile hands. I don’t have to talk about jumping—everyone knows that in one way or another the horse’s neck then must be given freedom to act; but it is surprising how many riders neglect this point at a walk and particularly the gallop.
— Schooling Your Horse. Pg.17

Vladimir Littauer trained me practically my entire junior career, and continued to advise me for many years. A riding master and remarkable horseman, he was incredibly influential to my career and education. Follow the Forward Riding System and continue the lessons on equestriancoach.com. Specifically, you can learn more on this topic with my lesson “Developing Good Hands”:
https://equestriancoach.com/courses/developing-good-hands/
-Bernie Traurig

19/11/2024

Hall of Famers: John Cottle with Monopoly!

John won the 1989 Olympic Cup on Monopoly.

Monopoly, bred by John, was sold to Canada where he represented Canada at major international shows, including the Olympics and World Equestrian Games.

15/11/2024

“The more complete you can get as a rider the better and I think the easiest way, or maybe also the only way, to get there, really, is to get influences from many different points of view. So [McLain Ward] obviously grew up in the American system, and that is totally different than the European system. For example, it’s very common over here to walk the jump off. But for me, when I started to work with him, I never walked a jump off. I never had any idea of the strides I would do in a jump off. I would just know what fences to jump and then I would ride it off my eye. So that's a very basic example, but many also small details that are way different than in Europe—you have a bit of a different approach to all of it. I think that's great to get to a view from all different sides. The great thing about our sport is there's many, many ways to do it. The French have their own way of riding. As Germans, we [historically] are a little bit more heavy in the saddle. We like to have the horses a little bit tighter in the neck, which is almost a bit old fashioned. And, in my opinion, you have to get away from that a little bit. So therefore, it's a great influence to [learn] the American way of riding, which is the neck is very long, the head should be high up, the horses need to search for the fences themselves. I think that's a huge advantage, especially in the jump offs, if you have horses that have a bit more instinct themselves and search for the fence themselves. That's for sure an influence I have from McLain.
—German Olympian Richie Vogel on what he’s picked up working with American Olympian McLain Ward.

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18/10/2024

13/10/2024

George Morris, top left, became well known for saying "More hip angle" at his clinics. In his picture he demonstrates a perfect Balanced or Fort Riley Seat jumping position. His feet are on the girth and "home" in the stirrups, just like the right picture of a US Cavalryman.

That right picture was posted in the comments of this page by a woman who sadly, I do not remember her name. She said that this picture is "uncle Eddie". Morris learned his jumping position, that won him international competition acclaim, from Gordon Wright, a former Fort Riley riding instructor.

The top center image is of show jumping Hall of Fame rider Michael Matz. Note that he is on the balls of his feet in order to add the additional flexibility of the ankle joint. Additionally, his feet are somewhat behind the girth or "back on the pegs", as motorcycle riders say, to help absorb the power of large stadium jumps.

These two changes to the original Fort Riley Seat are civilian adaptations for stadium jumping where there are no terrain changes. Note that all the top images riders are not leaning on their horse's necks in a crest release, and thus can follow the movement of their horses' heads and necks over a jump.

The bottom row of images shows riders jumping with their hands on the neck in a crest release, a jumping position that Morris eventually promoted. These riders have far less hip angle. Their feet have slid well behind the girth resulting in a very unathletic position.

When you see a tennis player waiting for a serve, or a linebacker waiting for the play in crouched athletic positions, you see a very agile stance, ready for movement in any direction. This is the basic athletic position for all sports that we also see in the Balanced or Fort Riley position.

Riders stretched out over the horse neck, as in the bottom row, are not athletically ready for movement in any direction. Their jumping positions are vulnerable and unsafe due to their extended hip angles. Quick changes in direction from their horses could put them on the ground. Perhaps this is why Morris constantly can be seen in his clinic videos yelling "More hip angle". Leaning on the neck makes establishing a proper hip angle, and thus a balanced position, more difficult and more dangerous.

03/10/2024

West Auckland RDA are sporting a new 64m x 26m indoor arena with our Andrews Bowen NZ London 2012 fibre mix and Tapora sand surface.

Ready for use and for hire @ 201A Henderson Valley Road.

Are you looking to build a new arena or just wanting a new surface?

Contact John Cottle 021 220 0275

27/09/2024

Become part of Team John Cottle!

Regular lessons will provide you with a top notch training programme/ system that works!

John is a fantastic coach and mentor! Keen students have so much to learn from him.

Grazing and livery spaces available also!

17/09/2024

14/09/2024

The Olympic showjumping champion shares the most important lessons he's learned for successful horsemanship

What would you add?

12/09/2024

Read the amazing story of Britain’s legendary showjumper told here for the first time

In a career spanning six decades, John Whitaker has been to six Olympic Games, four World Equestrian Games finals, three World Championships and has represented Great Britain on more than 200 Nations Cups.

His story is one of incredible success, heart-breaking loss, near-death injury and lost opportunity.

For every equestrian and horse enthusiast this is a must-read book about a rider who’s become the most admired horseman in the world.

https://www.johnwhitakerthelegend.com/